


All Love Is Sweet

by magic_at_mungos



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-15
Updated: 2013-09-15
Packaged: 2017-12-26 16:41:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/968229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magic_at_mungos/pseuds/magic_at_mungos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How can you tell when things changed? And when do you stop living in the past and start embracing the future?</p>
            </blockquote>





	All Love Is Sweet

Looking back, Remus was never sure whether that time was the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning. He knew that they were still innocents – playing at being grown up and almost believing that war was just a game. 

He picked a picture and looked at it. His heart contracted as he remembered that holiday down in Brighton.

*****

Sirius looked over through a haze of smoke. “Now, I _know _you’re having a bloody laugh. You’re far too Puritan to take your clothes off in public.” Lily reached for the joint and took a drag. She exhaled slowly.__

____

“Just because I don’t take my clothes off at the drop of a hat doesn’t mean I’m holier than thou.” She tilted her head back as James played with her hair. A faint snort came from Peter and Lily flapped a hand at him.

“Nana Beth has a friend who lives somewhere on the front,” Remus said vaguely. “”I forget how they know each other but she would think it was a bit of a scream if we stayed for a couple of days.”

James lifted an eyebrow. “Are you sure? Why would she do that?” 

Remus gave a languid shrug and didn’t seem overly bothered. “She loves parties and entertaining. I’ll send a telegram in the morning. She’s not on the phone.” He gave James a slightly mocking grin. “Live a little. Don’t worry. No one will look at you. Only Lily is daft enough to want to sleep with you. And it’s the last chance of any sun this year”

James threw a cushion at him and it hit Remus round the head. “You have to go out and buy us food now. I am starving.”

Sirius muttered, “You’re _always_ hungry. You’re going to eat us out of house and home.” Peter giggled nervously at that. “Not all of us have such a nice place.”

*****

Despite having lived in a mostly Muggle part of London for two years, Sirius still couldn’t handle the public transport system. Finally Lily got so fed up with his faffing about, that she grabbed the money and strode off to the ticket booth. She came back, tucking the tickets into her pockets. She picked up the last of the bags and peered over James’s shoulder at the timetable. Lily glanced at her watch.

“There’s one in ten minutes. We’ll be at the beach in no time.”

Remus adjusted his rucksack on his back and grinned at the others. “She gets things done, that girl.” 

After settling on the train, James was leafing through the paper. He wrinkled his nose at the three page spread on the latest betting scandal to hit the Quidditch world and said absently “Why didn’t we Apparate again?”

Peter took a bite of a sandwich and through a mouthful, “Because me and Remus are knackered and would Splinch ourselves. Some of us have to _work_ for a living. Sirius does Splinch himself every third time he does it and the rest of you don’t know where you’re going and could end up in Timbuktu.” He finished the sandwich and wiped his hands on his shirt. 

Lily snorted with laughter as she kicked off her sandals and tucked her feet underneath her. Peter hummed as he started to sketch her.

*****

The sun was just coming out as they stumbled out of the station and Remus looked round trying to get his bearings. “There used to be a shortcut through those houses,” he said, waving vaguely to his left. “But they’ve built up those horrid new ones now.”

Sirius elbowed him in the ribs. “Stop being such a snob. They’re perfectly adequate for living in.” Remus gave him an old fashioned look. 

“I’m sure they are. Except they look ghastly.”

Peter studied them. “They’re not that bad. Just a bit box-ish.” 

James rolled his eyes. “Please hurry up and tell us where we’re going. I could murder a beer and a smoke.”

Remus started walking down the road towards the front. “Ten minutes. I promise.”

The gulls cried as they stood in front of a shabby door. It was flung open and Remus was engulfed in a hug. A small lady stood on her tiptoes and kissed him, leaving bright red lipstick on his cheek. 

“Remus dear, you look more like your father every time I see you. Nice chap but frightfully dull.” Remus gave her a small smile as Sirius started to grin.

“Only because I’m going grey, Arry.” 

Arry ushered them into a crowded hallway and through to the kitchen. Fussing a little, she asked with a twinkle in her eye, “Do you want a civilised cup of tea or a less civilised gin and tonic? It’s after lunch.” Sirius laughed at the slight shock on James’s face.

Lily looked amused as she settled into one of the chairs and rested her elbows on the table. “Go on. Let’s live a little bit.”

*****

The afternoon passed into early evening, sitting round the kitchen table. Drinking more wine than was good for them and eating better food. Arry regaled them with tales of the music halls and travelling round Europe. Sirius exchanged tales of Parisian bistros and Florentine churches. James finally relaxed enough to be drawn into animated conversation whilst Peter just sat quietly drawing the scene.

Later that night, Remus and Sirius sat in the small patio having a last cigarette. Cool grey eyes met brown ones. He had a funny sort of smile on his face. “She’s a scream, your Arry.” He took another drag of his roll up. “If Andy turns out anything like her, then my family might have done something right in the last 25 years.”

Remus studied him and then shrugged. “She’s one of a dying breed. They don’t make them like her these days. Well least not in the Muggle world.”

Sirius reached forward and traced a pattern on the back of Remus’s hand. “Stay with me tonight. Even at home, you never stay. Don’t you get tired of running?”

Remus’s eyes narrowed and he pulled his hand away. “”I need space to be me. Air to breathe. Being around you sometimes feels like there’s not enough room to be me. “

He could almost hear Sirius’s hackles rise and he sighed. “Not in the way you’re taking it. Me or Pete walk into a room – one or two people might notice we were there. You walk in and every eye is on you. Wondering what it will take to get into your pants.”

Sirius swore as the cigarette burnt down and burnt his fingers. Slowly he relaxed. “Show me what that means. I want to understand.”

*****

Remus could only remember snapshots of that trip after that first evening. Eating fish and chips out of newspaper on the beach. Playing five a side football with some people they met and Lily being the best player on the pitch. Sand in their ice cream and then racing back to the flat to drink Pimms. Falling asleep on the train and ending up somewhere behind God’s back and having to sleep on the platform waiting for the milk train home.

It was never quite the same after that. Peter grew quieter and more secretive. James spent most of his time trying to convince Lily to marry him whereas Lily always turned him down until she didn’t. And whatever it was between him and Sirius? It was complicated. Off when they were apart and on when they were in the same place. 

The longer the war progressed, the more fear heightened. It had been causing their relationship to fray. Sirius hated that Remus had secrets and Remus hated Sirius’s recklessness. 

A sudden crash from the street outside jerked him back to the present day. He smiled grimly to himself. There was a thin line between love and hate and part of what Remus had hated about Sirius was the main part of what he loved about him.

*****

A Seer had once told him that he would know when his time had come. She couldn’t tell him when or how then. By all accounts, it didn’t work that way.

However, that year Harry was on the run, Remus began to have this small voice inside him telling him to make sure everything was in order. The incidents when Dumbledore died and the pitched battle over Little Whinging only cemented what this voice was saying. 

In late April, Remus opened a drawer. Tonks was feeding Teddy and he sat there and looked at the envelope he had taken out. It was a chain with 3 dog tags on it. One had his loathed registration number on it, proclaiming to all the world that he was an animal not a man. They other two were different. One simply said ‘Moony’. The other said ‘All love is sweet, given or returned.’ Sirius had given him that one the last time they had seen each other before the Potters died. It was a peace offering and meant more to Remus that he cared to admit. 

He slid the chain over his neck and smiled. Maybe it was time to start living in the present.


End file.
